The vibrant intellectual life of seventeenth century France, when
the great Corneille and Molière lived and the ladies formed salons
to encourage the arts, is reflected in Cyrano de Bergerac; but the
play also criticizes some of the falseness of the time. The very first
act deals with the inner politics of the theatre. In his presentation,
Rostand pokes fun at the "precieuse" women who pretend to be
great intellectuals. He also criticizes the system of patronage that
allows the wealthy to control the success of a play or other artistic
endeavor in spite of its merit. Additionally, Rostand criticizes the
quality of the theater audience and its reasons for coming to see the
play. When Cyrano stops Montfleury in the middle of his
performance, he tells the audience that he has done them a favor by
closing down a third-rate play with actors who murder the lines of
the dramatists. Later in the play, Cyrano shows his resistance to the
system of patronage when he refuses to accept the support of
Cardinal Richelieu for his own work. He does not want someone
else to have the power to edit his creations or to tell him what or
how to write.